U.S. National Team: Recapping the 2011 Year

After a 2010 year where they finished in the round of 16 in the World Cup and started a new youth movement, the United States national team had a rather disappointing 2011.

The youth movement continued. But, due in large part to how long many established starters were holding their positions, we saw a year where the squad saw change hurt the squad more than it should have.

This resulted in a second-place finish in the Gold Cup, a new manager in Jurgen Klinsmann and many younger players starting to put together a bigger influence at the end of the season.

Before we go into 2012, here is my recap of what happened in 2011 to the U.S. national team.

Delayed Friendly with Egypt

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One of the biggest problems facing the Americans over the past several years has been a lack of African opposition in friendlies.

Late in 2010, the United States announced they were going to play a friendly against Egypt in Cairo, for what would have been a fantastic matchup for the national team. This matchup would have given the team a highly-competitive match against one of Africa's best sides.

Unfortunately, due to the Arab Spring and protests to remove Hosni Mubarak from power, the Egyptian FA cancelled the friendly.

The Americans did not play a friendly during the February 9 international date.

Strong Results with South American Opposition

A big priority for the national team going into the 2014 World Cup is to start to play against South American opposition more often.

In 2011, the national team played three times against Argentina and have another friendly coming up on Jan. 21 against Venezuela.

In their first friendly, the U.S. were able to use a Teal Bunbury penalty to secure a 1-1 draw with Chile, using mainly MLS players.

Against Argentina, the Americans were able to shut out Lionel Messi due in large part to a fantastic match by Tim Howard. A goal from teenage phenom Juan Agudelo in the second half was enough for the Yanks to pull out an impressive draw.

Their match against Paraguay was not convincing. The Americans didn't bring the offensive flair that they showed against Argentina in the second half, which resulted in a 1-0 loss.

Group C of the Gold Cup

It was a group stage the Americans were expected to breeze through, yet this turned into a very difficult group for the USA to master.

After breezing past Canada, a poor performance against Panama found the Americans in a funk that it seemed they would be unable to get out of.

The Americans were able to ride an early Jozy Altidore goal to advance onto the quarterfinals over Guadeloupe. However, the damage was done and the loss to Panama put even more pressure on a side that was expected to win the tournament.

Advancing to the Gold Cup Final

It wasn't going to be easy, but the Yanks were able to reach another Gold Cup final after strong results against Jamaica and Panama.

The match against Jamaica appeared that it was going to be a difficult one for the Americans to win, considering how well Jamaica was in the group stage.

But, after a strong first half, an own goal from Jermaine Taylor off a Jermaine Jones shot and a Clint Dempsey goal highlighted the Yanks offensive dominance in the 2-0 win, despite going without Landon Donovan for the first half.

Against Panama, the Americans had a much slower game but were able to have another strong second half performance. This was highlighted by a great performance off the bench from Freddy Adu, who helped Clint Dempsey score the winner to get the Yanks into the Gold Cup final.